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They see the new curtains before the neighbours do, know which dog is friendly and which bin day causes chaos. We spent a week with the window cleaners who have become their streets’ unofficial historians, counsellors and gossip hotline.
Every café in Britain has one table that's secretly the best seat in the house, and it's never the one they offer you. We went looking for the window seats worth queuing for — where the tea is incidental and the view onto the high street is the whole show.
A love letter to the traders who turn a Saturday shop into a proper conversation, from Leeds to Cardiff. We rank the stallholders who combine banter, local knowledge and the uncanny ability to send you home with something you did not know you needed.
The pub is brilliant. It is also loud, expensive and sometimes a bit much on a Tuesday. We went looking for the places where Britain really lingers — the barber’s, the launderette, the garden centre café — and ranked twelve of the best on welcome, banter and biscuit supply.
We asked you lot to nominate the chattiest people in your everyday life — the cabbies, counter staff and booksellers who turn a quick errand into a proper good chat. Hundreds of nominations came back. Here are the ten who topped the scorecard.